Laura Watson claims the ghostly child can been seen just behind her son’s shoulder in the harrowing photograph.

Laura, from Newcastle, had been out with her family at Plessey Woods Park last weekend, when she decided to take some pictures on her phone of her daughter Charlotte Hill, 15, son Byrin Watson, nine and cousin Jack, 16.

She said: “It’s very unusual and everyone is really freaked out.

“Me and my daughter couldn’t even go to sleep last night because we were so scared.”

Laura, a medical receptionist, was left “terrified” when she later saw the pictures she had taken.

She claims the picture shows the face of another child had appeared behind Byrin, despite no one else being near them in the woods at the time.

“My husband is on night shifts and I was alone and I was like ‘oh God’. I was terrified in case anything had followed us back,” she said.

“I’ve had people on our Facebook saying they are going to send me prayers.”

Laura was sceptical of anything to do with ghosts and the paranormal, but admits the photograph has change her mind.

“I didn’t believe in anything like that until I saw this for myself,” she said.

The family had been walking their dogs after enjoying a picnic in the park when the children came across a large tree and began climbing it.

Laura decided to take a picture of them using her phone, but it wouldn’t be until later that day that she would discover the ghostly figure.

She said: “There was no one behind the tree, my daughter or my nephew would have seen them. There was nobody there.”

After getting home and putting the picture on her computer it was only then she made the frightening discovery.

“No one was any the wiser that anything was actually there until I saw the picture,” Laura said.

“When I got home I put the picture on the computer and when it zoomed in and I was able to see it closer, I thought what is that thing behind Byrin?

“When I zoomed in further I could see a face. But I was like ‘but there was nobody there!

“It looks like a child to me, I don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy. But I can see this face and it looks like the hand is on my son’s shoulder, which is very bizarre.

“Some people have said I must have Photoshopped it as they can’t believe it. But I’ve explained that I wouldn’t even have a clue how to do anything like that.

“It was literally taken on a phone. I’m rubbish with technology and I’m just not the kind of person to do that.

“There’s no way that is anything but what it is – you can basically see a face.

“For someone to be that close to my son, if it was another child, he would have noticed them.

“I would have seen them and I wouldn’t have taken a picture with another kid behind him.”

Some have suggested the ghostly figure might be the spirit of a boy who drowned in the woods years ago.

Laura said: “I don’t know much about the history of the woods but some people are saying that many moons ago a young boy drowned in the river. You don’t know if it’s just hearsay.

“A lot of people say it looks like a girl with pigtails but it doesn’t to me, it looks like a boy. That’s what it looks like to me.

“I would love to go back to the woods, it’s not put me off at all. I think it’s dead fascinating now.

“Obviously I just hoped it’s not hanging around us as I don’t want that feeling that something is with us.”